Older Chickens Picking on Younger...Help!

[beckella]

Hoping for some suggestions! We have 7 year old chickens that spent all winter togehter. We had a seperate smaller coop that held 3 younger/smaller chickens throughout the winter. Since it's been nice out and our new coop & run is completed we've integrated them together. They've all been together for about 2 weeks and a few of the older ones are still picking on the 3 younger ones. I know that they have to establish who's who but they sound like they are murdering these poor chickens and have drawn blood on one. Short of seperating them (which we can't do - no room) what can we do to make everybody get along? I feel bad for the new girls and am a bit worried about the 7 babies we have that will eventually have to join them. Any and all advice is welcome!!!!

Thanks so much!

 

[azygous]

You say you have no room to separate them? Maybe their communal space is too small, and that may be why they're picking on the youngsters.

Anyway, there's nothing you can do to make them get along. If you can identify one as the bully, you can temporarily put her in a pet crate so she can't go after the others. That sometimes disrupts the pecking order and can alter her behavior. No guarantees, though.

The best thing would be to have a partition so the youngsters can be safe until they are large enough to fend the big ones off. I like the idea of a small pop hole in the partition so the youngsters can go back and forth, and be able to escape to safety. After they all seem to be getting along, then you can remove the partition.

It sounds like space is the source of your problems. You may need to figure out a way to get more room for the chickens.